No Options
by Kaleidoscopic Panda Bear
Summary: Everyone's had a bad experience in a high school locker room. Here's Danny's, and the unfortunate aftermath that follows it. Rated T for language and mentions of rape, Dash/Danny if you want to take it that way, but mostly just friendship.
1. Chapter 1

He wondered how he must've looked. Banged up, bloody nose, ripped clothes. Crying. Was he crying? Another sniffle. Of course he was. Huh, his wrist wasn't moving right. Shit. A sharp intake of breath and more tears as a crack resounded around the room and his wrist popped back into place. That was gonna bruise. So was...

_'Don't go there- Danny - Stop.' _A stifled sob into his knees. These clothes were ruined. Danny stumbled to his feet, pain searing through his body as he shuffled across the floor to the half open doorway. How nice. Those boys left him to be found. How..._nice._ The halfa stopped walking. Shuddered. Leaned over and dry heaved. There was nothing in his stomach to throw up anymore, anyway. All of that was long gone.

He straightened up, caught a flash of his own reflection in the mirror, and really did puke this time. He had thought that his stomach was empty, but apparently not. Danny straightened back up again, _didn't_ look in the full length mirror this time, and shuffled over to the door to peek out. It was after school; nobody was in the gym at the time. Danny heard nothing but his own harsh breathing. So, he changed.

The two blue-white rings encircled his shaking frame, changing him into a hero, a villain, a vigilante. Not a boy, not another statistic, not a rape victim. Danny Phantom shuddered visibly and morphed his ghost legs into a basically intangible tail.

He was okay. Danny Phantom was fine. Danny Fenton, on the other hand, was dying inside.

"C'mon dude, Coach is gonna kill me! Would you please just stop laughing and help?" A familiar quarterback sourly griped at his Asian companion. "Dash, you gotta admit that that was fucking funny, dude. I'm sorry, but it was," Kwan slapped Dash on the back, smirking all the while.

"No, it wasn't. What the hell did you day to her to make her dump my food all over me, anyway?" With a frown, Dash shed his jacket and shook off a couple of fries that had gotten into his pockets. "Nothin'..." Kwan sang out in a childish voice. Dash's frown deepened. "You are so annoying sometimes, Kwan. I swear to god. If you told her I wanted to fuck her or something, I'll punch you. She wasn't even my type..." the blonde trailed off, pulling his now clean jacket closer to tighten his grip on it and wring it in his hands.

"Right..." Kwan whistled low, skipping ahead to walk backwards in front of Dash. "Your type is very specific, huh? One Da-" The dark haired teen was cut off from his teasing when a crash from the alley to their right broke the otherwise silent area around the Nasty Burger. "The fuck was that?" Kwan straightened up and turned to face the alley as Dash jogged past him to go see what it was.

Phantom knew he couldn't continue flying. His energy was pretty much gone, and two miles back, he had almost passed out midair, turning back into his human form for a split second before gaining control again and moving on. He hadn't seen the two jocks coming around the corner. All the halfa had seen was the empty alley and a chance to rest. Or cry; whichever came first.

Danny tried to land quietly, he really did. He just thought he was closer to the ground then what he really was. In reality, he dropped those four feet to the ground in his ghost form and hit the side of the dumpster on his way down. The white haired, injured halfa grit his teeth against the pain, the tears leaking freely down his face as he tried to push himself up and failed.

His right forearm was digging into the gravel, left hand trying to push up and going nowhere. Knees bent, slightly curled towards his chest, his hip flush with the ground. He felt pretty damn terrible. And then he heard, "The fuck was that?" followed by quick footsteps in his direction. He ducked his head down, realizing all too late that it would do no good to hide his face. The shock of white hair would give away his ghost form in a heartbeat.

He didn't even bother looking up to see who was there; he figured that it was too late to go intangible anyway. Turning back to his human form wasn't even an option; just as going ghost hadn't been an option back in the...locker room. Phantom shuddered and choked back a sob at the same moment that whoever it was stopped running.

"Jesus, Kwan! C'mere! It's Phan-" Dash cut himself off when he looked back to his fallen hero, only to see the two rings of light turning Phantom into..."Fenton?!" Dash stared. horrified, as the teen shivered and sobbed quietly, head down and body still bleeding. When his last name was said, Danny glanced up in fear, bloody nose dripping and watery eyes making everything blurry.

Dash, not really registering the movement, stepped forward. Kwan came into view at that moment, and Danny snapped out of whatever trance he had fallen into. With a surge of fear and adrenaline, Danny shoved up off the dirty concrete, stumbled back, and tripped to fall back on his butt.

The halfa went to go scoot back and further the distance between the two jocks and himself, but realized belatedly that he had never rebuttoned his pants. Scooting back only shoved the bloody denim further down his waist, revealing the beginnings of a hand shaped bruise directly on his hip. Both Kwan and Dash stopped in their tracks. Danny's trembling increased as he slowly stood and fixed his pants with shaking fingers.

He couldn't see through his tears, though, and his hands were too unsteady, so he settled for pulling them up higher every few seconds. "Danny..?" The ebony haired teen's head shot up, his neck cracking in protest. Ignoring the whiplash, Danny stuttered out, "I need help." Only, when Kwan stepped forwards and towards Danny, the shaken and battered teen flinched violently and tensed up, curling in on himself.

On instinct, the two white-blue rings appeared around his waist, but Danny didn't have the energy to actually go ghost. He was left breathless and dizzy, Kwan was utterly confused, and Dash was still absorbing the information. All hell broke loose when Danny pitched forward, in the grasp of unconsciousness, Kwan catching him at the last second.

"Jesus, dude! Dash! What do we do?" The quarterback didn't say anything for a few moments, coming back down to earth when Kwan called his name urgently. "We'll take him back to my place. My parents aren't home, so it'll be okay," he mumbled lowly. Kwan shifted Danny awkwardly, not knowing how to hold him. Dash sighed, letting an irritated not come through his tone.

"Give him to me." Without any protest, the unconscious teen was handed over, Dash's jacket placed on his bloodied frame, and the trio made it back to Dash's house without further incident.

Well, almost, that is.


	2. Chapter 2

Kwan was leading the way through a back alley that would cut across a more populated road to Dash's own street, when Danny started to wake up for the first time. Darkened blue eyes shot open, swirling with electric green and panic. Dash practically dropped him with how much Danny struggled against his hold.

"Fenton! Calm down!" Dash yelled at the halfa, bending over him to restrain his upper body. Wrong move, as it happened to be. Danny bit down hard onto Dash's left arm, drawing blood and falling to the ground when the other male released him in his pained surprise. He just barely caught himself, twisting around onto his back and aiming to protect himself.

Dash landed hard on his knees, one on either side of Danny's hips, and managed to get a hold of the panicking teen's hands, pinning the offending limbs above Danny's head. He noted that the halfa's eyes weren't the only thing chaning colors. Wild, messy hair with streaks of white through it sneaked into the way of green-blue, watery eyes.

It took Dash a few minutes to realize that Danny was whispering a hoarse mantra of, "Please don't, no, please, no, no, no. Oh god, don't." The quarterback shook his head at Danny, confused and angry and worried. "What happened to you..?" He whispered to himself more than to Danny, but the teen underneath of him shook his head frantically, closing his eyes tight and hiding his face in the crook of his elbow, resigned to whatever he thought Dash was going to do to him.

The football player's gaze softened as he fingered a purple and yellow bite mark (hickey?) on the side of Danny's neck. Danny flinched again, letting out a low whimpering sound. "C'mon, Dash," Kwan broke in, quiet for once. "Let's just get him home." Dash sighed heavily, hanging his head. As his grip loosened on Danny's wrists, the halfa turned to look up at him.

With tears and blood coating his face, he mumbled, "D-Dash?" The jock snapped his eyes down to look at Danny. "I'm sorry." Green-blue orbs slowly blinked, before shutting fully again without waiting for an answer. Danny was out again.

The second time Danny woke up, he was laying on a bed, curled up on his side and hugging a pillow to his chest. He was still in his ruined clothes, still dirty, still...The halfa stopped his train of thought. Everything was quiet, but Danny thought he could hear voices some distance away. Some days, he was overly thankful for his ghost powers. Danny sighed. He wasn't too concerned with figuring out where he was; he knew Dash had carried him somewhere, and it was only logical to assume that is was the jock's own home.

The battered teen tried to stop the onslaught of memories that came next, but he failed miserably. He sat up, tears leaking down his face from both the physical and emotional pain, hugging the pillow to him and pressing his face into it. Danny wanted to scream. He wanted to scream, cry, hit something, some_one. _He felt broken and tired and 300% done. He was over it.

When he calmed down enough, the teen raised his eyes to look around. He was almost shocked to see a pair of grey sweatpants with a tank top and pullover hoodie folded up on the desk near the bedroom door. There was a not sitting on top of the folded clothes, and as Danny slowly got up and padded over to it, he made sure to keep his footfalls quiet. The halfa picked the note up with shaking fingers, glancing over Dash's scrawled handwriting.

_**'Danny, you can take a shower then put these on if you want. There are plastic bags under the bathroom counter, just put your clothes in one. Come down when you're ready, I want to ask you about something.'**_

Danny scowled at the note. Of course Dash wanted to ask him about something. Of course. Tears pricked the corners of the teen's eyes again and he brushed them away angrily. He didn't want to cry. It wasn't going to help or change anything and he didn't want to cry. So, instead of dwelling on it, Danny walked to the bathroom and tried not to stare at all the bruises as he got ready for a much needed shower.


	3. Chapter 3

A floor below, in Dash's living room, the two boys heard the water turn on. Kwan seemed to sink back into the sofa in relief, whereas Dash leaned forward even further and continued to mash buttons on his controller, harder than necessary. The deep bite mark from Danny's freak out stung every time he tightened his grip, and the scratch on his cheek stretched uncomfortably when he clenched his jaw shut.

But he knew that Danny must've been feeling one hundred times worse. The cracking of plastic snapped Dash out of his thoughts though, and he looked down to be met with blood and broken plastic. "Dude," Kwan breathed out from next to him, "You just broke that fucking controller!" He laughed, but it sounded forced almost. Dash dropped the controller to the ground and stepped over it, going into the kitchen to run his hand under water. He was pissed.

Patches of skin were bruised, red, bleeding. Danny had scrubbed his body raw, and he could still feel everything. Their hands, mouths, their...he shuddered. Facing away from the mirror so he wouldn't have to face himself, the halfa slowly pulled on the sweatpants. He had to roll them up a few times, but they fir around his slim hips, surprisingly.

The tank top was pulled on next, the straps falling down his shoulders and irritating him. He was absolutely embarrassed when he realized the black hoodie had 'Baxter' written across the back. Danny wasn't complaining, though; if it covered him up, it covered him up. The halfa tied the plastic bag full of his ruined clothes shut, stepping out of the bathroom and back into Dash's bedroom.

He felt completely out of place there, and it was making Danny uncomfortable all over again. He sighed, dropping the bag next to the bed and carefully lowering himself back onto the mattress. He felt awkward, but he had other things on his mind then just how weird it was to be laying on Dash's bed. He couldn't believe Dash and Kwan had actually witnessed him attempting to go ghost, no matter how pitiful that attempt was.

Danny shook his head, disappointed with himself. The quarterback had not only witnessed that, but he had also seen Danny turning back into his human form from being Phantom. Sighing, the dark haired teen curled up on his side and buried his face in his arms. He was too tired, too mentally beaten down to deal with all this. But he knew that he would eventually have to go downstairs. Going ghost and running away still wasn't an option.

Dash had bandaged his hand, duct taped the controller back together the best he could, and still could not sit still enough to get back into the video game. He was irritated with himself, worried about Danny, pissed off in general and patience was the last thing in his mind. But in the back of his head, Dash knew there were bigger things going on.

Like Phantom, for example. It should've been obvious, and the football player wanted to kick himself for not realizing it sooner. Fenton was Phantom, and that made Dash wonder just what exactly had happened to him. But with injuries the likes of Danny's, Dash knew it could really only be one thing. And he doubted that a ghost was the one who did it.

All the jock's muscles clenched and strained in anger, but a creak on the steps behind him broke him out of his reverie.

Danny froze like a deer in the headlights. He hadn't expected the step to creak, and that completely threw his stealth plan out the window. Both Dash and Kwan turned around on the couch to look at him, and on instinct, Danny brought his covered hands up to his face to hide. It was childish, but the mantra of, _'If I can't see them, they can't see me,'_ actually ran through his head.

Danny's face heated up as his embarrassment got the best of him. He huddled closer to the wall, hearing the rustling of fabric and someone clearing their throat. "Dash, I'm gonna...I'm heading home, 'kay? My mom's probably worried." Danny peeked out from behind his fingers in time to see the sheepish look Kwan gave his friend and the curt nod Dash gave him back.

Before Kwan stepped out, he paused and glanced at Danny. "Hope you feel better soon," he muttered. Danny almost snorted. He wasn't sick, he had been sexually assaulted. You don't ever _'feel better'_ after a group of fucking jerks stole your virginity on the locker room floor. But the halfa kept his mouth shut, opting instead to give a half hearted, small wave towards the jock as he shut the door after himself.


	4. Chapter 4

It took Dash almost fifteen minutes to coax Danny down off the last three steps and down to the couch with him. After a while, Danny even picked up Kwan's old controller and started fiddling with the character on the screen. With half open eyes, Danny watched as Dash massacred a small group of enemy soldiers and continued to tromp through the bloody snow. What game was this?

The halfa dropped his controller, letting it slide off the couch and to the carpet. He drew his knees up to his chest, looping his arms around his knees and resting his head on top of them. The ding of the pause menu popping up floated from the video game to Danny's ears, and the couch dipped as Dash swiveled to face the compacted figure.

Dash sighed heavily before clearing his throat. "Fenton-" The quarterback cut himself off guiltily as the other jumped slightly. "Danny. look, I'm not going to force anything out of you, because- well - goddammit..." Dash trailed off, trying to control his stuttering. He pinched the bridge of his nose, furrowing his brow in frustration.

"You saw me as a ghost." Danny spoke up finally. Dash took a few seconds to respond. "Y-yeah. You're Phantom. Me 'n Kwan kind of pieced that together." Danny turned his head sideways, a distrusting look on his face as he settled his tired gaze on Dash's. The jock swallowed hard. "We already agreed not to tell anyone, if that's what you're worried about. But that's not really what I wanted to talk about."

Danny's eyes hardened, a glare being leveled at Dash as he continued. "Danny, look. You don't have to answer me or anything, it's just..." the blonde sighed, running his hands through his hair and over his face. "Okay. I know...I know someone _hurt_ you. Maybe a few someones, I don't know that, but I know it wasn't ghosts that did it."

Half way through Dash's sentence, Danny had begun to shake and he hid his face back in his knees. The halfa shook his head slightly. Dash's temper spiked.

"Danny! Your fucking jeans were undone and _bloody!_ I saw the bruise on your hip, and it was a perfect hand print! This cannot be ignored!" He reached out and grabbed onto Danny's shoulder, the guilt coming back full force as the ebony haired teen jerked harshly at the sudden contact. Everything fell silent as Dash watched blue eyes swirled with green begin to water.

Danny bit down hard onto his lip, the opposite hand grasping Dash's. Dash slowly let go of Danny's bony shoulder, but their hands stayed in contact. The jock lowered his gaze to the half hidden hand, grasping it lightly as if he would lean down and kiss the bruised knuckles. Slowly pushing the black sleeve up, the quarterback brought his gaze back up to Danny's wide, frightful eyes.

The beaten teen had his unoccupied hand covering his mouth, as if to stop any sound from coming out. When the sleeve was pushed up a little past Danny's elbow, the tears finally fell and Dash looked back down so he wouldn't have to see them. The bruises littering Danny's arm was even worse, though.

Dash lightly traced over them, rubbing calming circles into the pale, marred flesh. "Danny, I want to help you...But I can't if you won't let me in."

Calm, worry, panic, fear. Right back down to calm again. Danny watched with blurry eyes, trying to keep his breathing in check as Dash traced over the bruises with tender, calloused fingers and his head hung low.

Slowly, he allowed his muscles to relax, fingers uncurling from their death grip as Dash continued his movements. Suddenly, seeing the bite mark on Dash's own arm, Danny jerked his limb back and sucked in a sharp breath. "Did - did I do that?" The halfa glanced up at the quarterback, finally noticing the cut on his cheek.

"And that, g-god. I'm sorry, I - I didn't mean to-" Dash cut himself off with a sharp, "Hey!" Danny flinched back on instinct. The blonde looked reproachful, but continued on with a softer tone. "Don't apologize to me. You were in panic mode; it was my own damn fault. I pinned you down, which was a really stupid move," Dash paused as Danny looked away, biting his lip again. "And I'm sorry. But no amount of apologizing is going to fix this. I just - I need you to trust me, okay?"

With the words, Dash held his hand out in invitation, steadily gazing at Danny's battered and worried face. At first, Danny simply turned to face Dash, but slowly, ever so slowly, he extended both arms, elbows resting on his knees, to play with the quarterback's relaxed fingers. "Alright," he finally whispered. Dash smiled brightly back at him.

Danny had fallen asleep on the couch a while after Dash had continued his video fame conquest. The quiet noise of Black Opts 2 and Danny's light snoring were the only sounds around the pair, until Dash started hearing mumbling. Danny was talking in his sleep. Or, more like pleading with someone, as the case was.

Dash tried to ignore it for as long as he could, but his skin was crawling with guilt and anger and sorrow for the sleeping teen. In the span of a few seconds, the sleep talk had gotten way too disturbing for Dash's comfort. He paused the video game and turned towards the curled up ball that was Danny, the controller behind him on the couch.

The football player tried calling his name a few times, not wanting to touch him and scare him, but he quickly realized he'd have to do just that. Dash sighed, irritated with himself, but he very well couldn't just let Danny have a nightmare if he could do anything to stop it. Dash placed his hand on Danny's side, pulling the hoodie back down from where it was riding up.

Pushing Danny gently onto his back, Dash kept his hand on the teen's hip and leaned over him a bit to brush his bangs out of his face. "Danny, come on. Wake up," his voice was accompanied by a light shake of Danny's hip, hoping to stir the other. It worked. Slowly, the halfa's eyes slid open, teary and blurry from sleep and bad dreams.

Danny opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was a choked sob. Dash helped him sit up, not knowing what to do to comfort him.


	5. Chapter 5

**Disclaimer: I own nothing. **

**Previously, on No Options:**

_**Pushing Danny gently onto his back, Dash kept his hand on the teen's hip and leaned over him a bit to brush his bangs out of his face. "Danny, come on. Wake up," his voice was accompanied by a light shake of Danny's hip, hoping to stir the other. It worked. Slowly, the halfa's eyes slid open, teary and blurry from sleep and bad dreams.**_

_**Danny opened his mouth to say something, but all that came out was a choked sob. Dash helped him sit up, not knowing what to do to comfort him.**_

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_Danny sighed, trying to ignore the sounds around him and how it was all just making the throbbing in his head so much worse. He had been hit in the head with a dodge ball, multiple times, and he was feeling sick to his stomach. He almost considered going to the school nurse to see if he had a minor concussion or something before walking home, but he shamed the idea before really settling on it. _

_He had fared much worse and not seen a doctor; Danny was sure that he could live with the possibility of a dodge ball induced concussion. He had just opened his gym locker to get his regular clothes when his last name was called from the doorway of the locker room. It was his teacher. _

"_Fenton, come back out here. I want to talk to you."_

_The halfa sighed. He knew this was going to turn into one of those, 'You need to make yourself less of a target' type speeches, so he grit his teeth and made his way out of the noisy locker room to get it done and over with. He just wanted to go home; gym was his last class of the day, after all._

_And sure enough, the man just droned on about how Danny needed to 'put forth a little more effort and stop taking everyone's crap', and even though he knew his teacher meant well, Danny couldn't help the irritation that rose in him at being talked at like that for the billionth time. And instead of listening to his teacher's speech, the halfa wistfully thought about how everything would be so much easier if people knew he was the phantom. But of course, that wasn't an option._

_Students filed out of the locker room behind the pair, and Danny became restless as he realized he was the only student left in the gym. Once his teacher was satisfied, or more likely, had just run out of things to say, the man left Danny to his own devices and disappeared from the gym to head to his own home. It was Friday, after all. The man most likely just didn't want to be there any longer than Danny himself did. _

_Danny's headache had multiplied tenfold by the time he had made his way back into the locker room to get changed. Due to the way that he had his eyes buried in his palms to block out the insufferable florescent lighting, and the way his own heart was pounding in his ears, the halfa simply assumed he was alone in the room._

_Oh how very wrong he was._

_Danny was given no warning before something hard hit him from behind. Laughter erupted from above him, and the dazed teen barely mustered the energy to roll over and look in the direction of his attackers. A group of four jocks had him surrounded in a semicircle, identical and cruel smirks dancing on all their lips. _

_Vicious and unforgiving kicks, stomps, jeers and taunts were all thrown at him, and from his prone position of being curled up on the ground, Danny could not retaliate. He had his chin tucked to his chest, one arm above his head and the other around his ribs, trying in vain to protect those areas. The unprovoked beating seemed to stretch on for an impossibly long time, until the group of boys finally began to dissipate. _

_A few harsh words were still thrown his way as the group headed for the exit, but Danny really wasn't paying attention now. He was more focused on trying to breathe, trying not to pass out, and he was really trying to pull himself together so he could get up off the ground. He never succeeded. _

_One of the boys broke off from the departing group, offering a simple, "I'll catch up to you guys later," as his only explanation. It was only him and Danny in the locker room now. Heading back over to the beaten teen, the jock quickly halted the halfa's attempts of getting up with a kick to his side, sending Danny back down to the ground. _

_The jock leaned down and roughly pulled on Danny's shoulders, turning him over so he was laying flat on his stomach. Danny tried to get his hands underneath of him so he could push himself back up, but all that did was give his attacker enough room to weasel his own hand under Danny's squirming form, down to the crotch of his jeans._

_Danny froze. The other teen chuckled, slow and dark and knowingly. _

"_N-no." Fingers crept back up to the button and zipper attached to the denim. "Stop. P-please, don't do this." The button was undone, and in one, smooth motion, the zipper was pulled down, followed by the actual jeans themselves. "S-stop it, this isn't funny!"_

_Danny's thrashing was once again brought to a halt as the larger teen above him grasped his wrists in one hand, uncomfortably tight, and pulled them above his head. The halfa shuddered as he felt hot breath wash over the back of his neck, a hand gripping painfully onto his bare hip, and a voice suddenly whispering harshly into his ear._

"_Who said this was a joke?"_

_And the distressed gasp that Danny had released when sharp teeth sank into the junction of his neck and shoulder quickly turned into a full out scream when a more dominant pain exploded from his backside. The scream was cut off, though, when the hand on his hip moved to smash his face into the ground before finding its way back to its original position._

_From somewhere else, there seemed to be a lighter presence trying to gain his attention. Danny gladly latched onto that lighter feeling, managing to let go of the pain that encompassed his entire being at the moment. He heard his name being called, gently, and everything around him disappeared, except for that pressure on his hip. _

_Even that, though, was lighter now; as if the hand that was causing it had different intentions. Not to harm, but maybe to comfort and calm. Again, his name was called._

_"Danny, come on. Wake up." And that was all it took. _

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Danny didn't know what was going on at first. He knew that Dash was leaning over him, talking at him in a reassuring tone, and he knew that he was no longer back in the locker room, but there was a difference between knowing and understanding these things.

The hand on his hip was once again brought to his attention when fingertips brushed against sensitive, bruised skin, and the halfa opened his mouth to say something, but whatever Danny was planning on saying was lost to a choked sob instead. Dash helped him sit up, and somewhere in the back of the battered teen's mind, the thought occurred to Danny that maybe he should say something back to the other male to let him know that he was alright.

Only, he wasn't alright. Not in the least bit. So instead of speaking, Danny opted to curl into himself more, leaning into Dash's hesitant and light touch as the quarterback half-hugged, half-supported him on the couch. But the tears didn't really come until Danny zeroed in on the words spilling out of Dash's mouth.

"_I'm sorry, Danny. I am so- So fucking sorry."_


End file.
